There are many instances in which a bed patient in a hospital bed must have the side rail sections of the bed maintained in elevated positions. Although some of these patients are able to use and may benefit mentally and phsychologically from use of a telephone, many bed patients find it difficult to reach over to a bedside table or cabinet or the like to use a telephone positioned thereon, particularly when they have to reach over an elevated hospital bed side rail assembly. Accordingly, a need exists for structure by which a telephone may be conveniently supported from a hospital bed side rail assembly on the exterior thereof and with the receiver portion of the telephone spaced slightly above the upper marginal edge of the side rail assembly for ease of use by a patient in the bed and without the telephone or its support projecting into the area disposed immediately above the mattress of the bed.
Examples of various different forms of bed mounted supports including some of the general structural and operational features of the instant invention are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 868,037, 1,866,258, 3,009,676, 3,174,162 and 4,222,136.